China promotes Xinjiang as harmonious and open to foreigners, while maintaining a tight grip on the narrative of daily life.
Ma Jirong, a man in his early 70s, leads a group of international visitors into the courtyard of the Shaanxi Grand Mosque.
Wearing a kufi prayer cap with an embroidered silver band stitched all the way around, the imam strides with a quiet confidence.
“This is more than a century old,” he says, gesturing towards an enormous tree whose trunk plunges far below the pavement on which we are standing.
Thoughtfully planted around the courtyard are various ornamental and cypress trees that line the path leading to 20 or so steps up into the main prayer hall.